Last week the Trudeau government announced Canada would provide refuge for members of the White Helmets and their families. The announcement came as a still unknown number of the group were evacuating southern Syria via the Occupied Golan and Israel.
Though Canada’s minister of foreign affairs says she supports the group whole-heartedly, critics charge the Syria Civil Defence or White Helmets “humanitarian workers” work with and are intrinsically allied to al Qaeda, primarily through its Syria-based spin-off Jabhat Al-Nusra.
Eva Bartlett is an independent Canadian journalist and activist who has lived in and reported from Gaza and Syria over the last decade.
She has been one of the few Western witnesses of the destruction of war from where Western missiles and bombs land, and one of even fewer to fix properly the responsibility on those firing and dropping them. Eva is recently returned from her eighth foray into Syria.
Eva Bartlett in the first half.
And; buoyed perhaps by his early days North Korean diplomatic success, Donald Trump has again resorted to Twitter to launch a bellicose attack against Iran, making, as he did against Kim Jong Un, thinly veiled threats of nuclear annihilation. But, Iran is not Korea, and in the context of a middle east already aflame, the American president may be painting himself into a corner leading to yet another war.
David Swanson is a peace and political justice activist, journalist, radio host, and author whose book titles include: ‘War No More: The Case for Abolition,’ ‘When the World Outlawed War,’ ‘War Is a Lie,’ and ‘The Military Industrial Complex at 50’ among others. He’s director of WorldBeyondWar.org whose annual confab Designing a World Beyond War: Legalizing Peace takes place in Toronto this September. Find out more at: #NoWar2018. David also blogs at Let’s Try Democracy (DavidSwanson.org), WarIsACrime.org, and hosts the public affairs program, Talk Nation Radio.
David Swanson and getting beyond war in the second half.
And; Victoria-based activist and CFUV Radio broadcaster at-large, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to get up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Eva Bartlett and the White Helmets Canada-bound.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/